President Joe Biden conceded on Thursday he can't guarantee the courts won't find his new eviction moratorium unconstitutional but noted it will at least buy renters some time.
Biden told reporters at the White House he spoke to 'a number of legal scholars' about the moratorium and there was a 'split' in their opinion.
'I can't guarantee you the court won’t rule that we don't have that authority but at least we'll have the ability to, if we have to appeal, to keep this going for a month - at least. I hope longer,' he said.
He added that he hoped it would give states time to distribute funds they have in their possession from an earlier allocation by Congress.
Distribution of rental assistance that Congress allocated in December and March has been painfully slow. The $47 billion Emergency Rental Assistance program has, to date, disbursed only $3 billion.
President Joe Biden conceded he can't guarantee the courts won't find his new eviction moratorium unconstitutional
Housing advocates protest outside Governor Andrew Cuomo's office on the eviction moratorium on Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2021, in New York
Rep. Cori Bush talks to protesters at the Capitol who were pushing to extend the eviction moratorium
But some landlords have already struck at the new order.
Groups representing landlords who say they are suffering under the Biden administration's eviction moratorium filed suit in federal court Wednesday – claiming the CDC's latest extension of the moratorium is 'unlawful.'
Landlord group argues that the administration was acting for 'nakedly political reasons' when it cobbled together a new extension this week, days after a prior Centers for Disease Control and Prevention extension had lapsed.
The landlord groups late Wednesday asked a U.S. judge in Washington to immediately lift the new eviction moratorium that was put in place Tuesday by the CDC, saying the new order was 'unlawful.'
The Alabama Association of Realtors and others said in an emergency filing the CDC issued the new order 'for nakedly political reasons - to ease the political pressure, shift the blame to the courts for ending the moratorium, and use litigation delays to achieve a policy objective.'
CDC director Rochelle Walensky signed an order on Tuesday that determined the
